Steps for embroidering custom designs

randman1August 13, 2004

Hi. It's me again. The visor covers I managed to sew together went over well at www.bonnevilleclub.com . So well in fact, other members have expressed interest in custom embroidery for their cars. I'm entertaining the idea of producing them myself rather than outsourcing as I had done with mine. But, I need some help in understanding the steps to embroider an original design on a home machine. Here is what I understand so far (feel free to correct me as I'm a beginner):

1) Create image. I've been told that the Club has full licensing from GM to reproduce authentic logos. I can scan these images or might be able to obtain an image file.

2) Digitize. I've seen software from $200 to $1000 to do this. I've also seen services that will digitize an image sent via email and returned in the format for the specific machine.

3) Download to memory card. I would need one of those magic boxes and a memory card to transfer the file from my PC to the card.

One caveat - the digitizing process has a long learning curve - it simply eats up tons of time in the beginning. If you enjoy fussy computer work it can be fun, if you don't it can be an incredibly frustrating waste of time.

Look for a sewing machine dealer near you, and see if they offer any digitizing classes. Maybe you can "stick a toe in" to see if this is the way you want to go.

Looks like you have the process correct! Besides the learning curve, it's a LARGE cash investment. True digitizing software is expensive. I think most of the lower-cost programs only allow you to edit existing designs.

After much research, I decided to leave the digitizing and the embroidery to the pros. I managed to find a digitizer that does great work and charges $4/1000 stitches and an embroiderer who also does great work and charges $1/1000 stitches without any minimum quantities.

I have too much on my plate as it is and found I could not invest the time and money to do it myself. It works out better because I haven't seen a home machine that can do baseball style hats. That is one of the articles on which the embroidery will be done.